Wholesale plant nurseries, such as Bailey Nurseries, the assignee of this invention, grow large numbers of potted plants for distribution to various retail greenhouses. It is often necessary to move groups of potted plants from one location to another within the nursery. The number of plants to be moved is often quite large. For example, many hundreds of potted plants might have to be periodically moved within the nursery for various reasons.
Nurseries often load groups of potted plants that need to be moved onto transport wagons. For example, one wagon might hold a group of from thirty to a couple hundred potted plants, the group of plants usually substantially covering the wagon bed. The wagon is then driven to a desired location within the nursery where the plants are to be unloaded. The plants are taken off the wagon and then placed on the ground in the same group they were in while on the wagon. This group of plants might then be left at this location for some time while the plants mature or await shipment.
In some cases, it is possible to load the wagon at a central location where semi-automated plant handling equipment is available. For example, the plants can be delivered by conveyors to workers who stand adjacent the wagon. These workers simply take the plants as they are delivered by the conveyor and slide them onto the wagon bed. This loading can be done relatively quickly and easily.
However, unloading the plants from the wagons after the wagon has been moved into the nursery to some desired drop off location is a different and more difficult task. The drop off location might be anywhere within the nursery. Since the nursery covers many acres, it is not cost effective to have centralized unloading equipment at locations spread throughout the nursery. Accordingly, the potted plants have traditionally been unloaded from the wagon by hand.
Manual unloading of the wagon is strenuous, time-consuming work. It often takes a half hour or forty five minutes for one or two workers to pick up the potted plants from the wagon and place them into a group on the ground. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an easier and faster way of unloading potted plants from a transport wagon.